


At Your Service

by HaruHara16



Category: RWBY
Genre: Beacon Academy, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, High School, Pre-Canon, noodle shop
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:55:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24106315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HaruHara16/pseuds/HaruHara16
Summary: “I didn’t know you worked here,” Summer slowly says as she looks over Raven’s slightly-tattered employee uniform.“And I was hoping to keep things that way too,” Raven huffs, her thumb repeatedly clicking on the end of the pen in her hand, “I already have to deal with Qrow frequently coming in and giving me shit as it is. You are welcome to let me know if you need more time, but if all you’re going to do is stare at the menu, why don’t you skip on back to the dorms and quit wasting my time?”
Relationships: Raven Branwen/Summer Rose
Comments: 5
Kudos: 42





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't expect to get very much attention on this fic since RoseBird is a rarepair, but I wanted to try and get out of my comfort zone and write something for them. It's a ship that doesn't have very many fans but I wanted to explore and put out my own take of what their relationship might have looked like in some sort of alternate universe? I don't exactly vibe with Raven in the canon, but that's why fanon exists... ^^;
> 
> Regardless, I hope readers enjoy the story for what it is.~

Summer lets out a big sigh of disappointment.

It was probably the worst day she’s had a school in a long while.

First she gets her math exam back and finds out she scored below an 85. It wasn’t too bad considering that the class average was a 70, but this would be the first time she’d ever gotten anything under a 90. To her, it was a huge blow to her near-exemplary performance in academics.

Then, because she wanted to discuss the errors she made in said test, she had to skip the entire hour of lunchtime to meet with the professor during her office hours to go over every single one of the questions she missed. With no time left for a proper meal, she had to live off of the home-baked cookies that she had intended to share with her team.

Later, when it was time for combat training, Summer could barely focus on her opponent. Pitted against Qrow for the 27th time this school year, she was eager to try some new fight moves against him, but with her thoughts distracted and her stomach growling at every possible opportunity, the match was declared over in less than thirty seconds. She was ready to lie on that very ground until Qrow pulled the huntress on her feet and shamelessly carried her over his shoulders back to the seats of the amphitheater. With a few snickers and inaudible whispers from her classmates, she resorted to hiding her face behind her white hooded-cape for the rest of the evening.

Basically, it’s been a long day.

After all that bad luck (and lame puns from Qrow at an attempt to cheer her up), Summer decides to stop by the noodle restaurant he's been recommending to her for some time. It’s a bit far from campus, so it’s not as popular as the ones closer to school. Even then, it still has a decent number of customers coming and going. It was going to be her first time there so she had hoped Qrow or Tai would be willing to keep her company. Unfortunately, Tai requested that he hog the bird boy for the night for a study session as payback since they failed the group quiz in their grimm studies class last week. So Summer was on her own.

  
Thankfully, Qrow had warmed her up with some detailed descriptions of the various types of noodles he had already tried, and with more and more of her imagination getting the better of her, Summer is practically drooling when she is seated by one of the waiters at the entrance.

When the menu comes out, Summer is so hyper-fixated on the tasty ingredients listed that she nearly drops the glossy sheet when a voice asks, “You ready to order?”

Summer looks up from her menu, but her smile turns into one of surprise when she finds out who her waitress is.

“Raven?” Summer squeaks, her silver eyes widening.

“Summer,” Raven flatly replies, her crimson eyes piercing that of her customer’s.

“I didn’t know you worked here,” Summer slowly says as she looks over Raven’s slightly-tattered employee uniform.

“And I was hoping to keep things that way too,” Raven huffs, her thumb repeatedly clicking on the end of the pen in her hand, “I already have to deal with Qrow frequently coming in and giving me shit as it is. You are welcome to let me know if you need more time, but if all you’re going to do is stare at the menu why don’t you skip on back to the dorms and quit wasting my time?"

“I had no idea someone with such an attitude like yours was able to get a job in customer service,” Summer frowns, looking back down at the menu.

“I didn’t know the restaurant permitted brats to eat out by themselves,” Raven curtly responds, impatiently tapping on her notepad.

Summer momentarily glares at her Raven before hiding her face behind the menu. A part of her wanted to be petty and stall even more just to see what kind of reaction it would elicit from Raven, but her hunger wins her over and she promptly makes a decision.

“I’ll have rice noodles with extra meatballs,” Summer announces and hands the menu back to Raven.

“Anything to drink?” Raven asks as she jots down Summer’s order with a blank expression.

“Just a glass of water is fine,” says the young huntress.

“With or without ice?” Raven asks again in a monotone voice.

“Wooow, so meticulous,” Summer raises her eyebrows with sarcasm in her tone, “I wished you would demonstrate that kind of care when it came to spending time with your team.”

“I’m obligated to ask,” Raven rolls her eyes, “Besides, I’m not the one who had to get dragged out of the ring during my short-lived sparring match today. Surprised you didn’t cry for a rematch.”

Summer’s face grows a slight shade of red, “Whatever, just add some ice to my drink.”

Raven makes low hum of acknowledgment, scribbles some more notes and walks away without another word, leaving a moderately grumpy Summer to her thoughts.

With a lingering hint of childishness in her veins, Summer takes out her scroll. Making sure that Raven isn’t looking, she snaps a few pictures of her distributing large bowls of noodles to a faraway table.

Summer stares at one high-quality photo for a moment. To be honest, she was surprised with how mindful Raven was when she presented herself. It was a simple attire: a red dress shirt with the tiny restaurant logo embroidered in yellow followed by black pants. A gray waist apron was also a necessity and the tiny bow at the front was kinda cute. Raven would never give a second thought when it came to her Beacon uniform; the same for Qrow. Their frizzy hair would be left pointing out in all directions, red ties would either be loosened, or their jackets would be unbuttoned and wrinkled.

With Summer’s constant pestering and Tai practically clinging onto him every hour of the day, they both managed to get Qrow to sharpen up his appearance. But only just a little bit.

It was subtle, but Summer was willing to let him off the hook because she took pride in the fact that she was able to convince him enough to listen to her in the first place. Raven on the other hand…

“You get stood up or something?”

“What?” Summer blinks in confusion as Raven literally throws the bowl of soup onto the table.

“Nothing,” Raven shrugs, “I just didn’t expect the the teacher’s pet to be out all by herself when she tries so hard to be friends with everyone on campus.”

“Neither did I,” Summer snaps, “Oh, I can’t believe I’m doing something so self-indulgent!”

Raven roughly slides the glass of ice water onto the table before leaving once more.

The sweet smell of the broth draws Summer’s attention away from Raven as her eyes scan through the veggies and half-cut meatballs floating at the top. She quickly grabs the bottles of hoisin and spiracha chili sauce and mixes them vigorously into her bowl and more into a separate tiny dish. Breaking the disposable chopsticks apart, the starving huntress finally digs into the noodles.

Summer doesn’t realize how much time she’s spent at the restaurant, but when she looks outside the windows it’s already dark out. Business has slowed to some degree but the employees were still up and about. It’s probably been a good fifteen minutes after she’s gulped down the entirety of her bowl, paid the bill, and all she’s been doing is taking in the euphoria of the flavors still stuck on her tongue between text messages.

“Are you gonna keep loitering here or what?” Raven asks when she passes by Summer’s table, “We’re a restaurant, not a daycare center for lost children.”

Having had enough of Raven interrupting her moments of peace, Summer decides to let her immaturity get the better of her.

“I was just wondering,” Summer goes back into her photo stream before holding it up, “Which one do you like better, the one of you taking customers’ orders or the one where you’re serving them their dinner?”

Raven’s face almost goes pale and she tries to snatch the scroll away from Summer’s hand, but Summer is able to keep it away from her.

“Woah, careful there,” a smirk grows across Summer’s face, “Isn’t it against the rules to assault your customers?”

If Raven’s eyes could burst into flames, they would have done so right about now. She looks ready to murder.

“You fuckin-!“ This time, Raven doesn’t try to reach for the scroll and instead digs her fingernails into the plastic tray between her hands.

“You know, a few classmates have gotten tired of eating the same, boring lunch in the cafeteria. I was thinking of extending an invitation for them to go out with me. What’s your take on that?” Summer does her best impersonation of puppy-dog eyes and leans her cheek against her palm with false thoughtfulness.

The waitress restrains herself from breaking the tray in half with her hands. “Delete them.”

“No,” Summer stands her ground, “Your persuasion skills are terrible.”

Raven rubs her face in agonizing impatience. “What do you want you little brat?”

“How about dedicating some time out to your teammates for a change? You’re never available even when we try to work around your crazy schedule.” Summer twirls her scroll before catching it and snapping another picture of Raven.

The act earns a deep scowl from the latter. “I meant for you to keep your trap shut and not share the damn pictures.”

Summer is practically grinning. She managed to corner Raven into a difficult position, something she’s never accomplished before.

“What’s wrong?” Summer asks, “I thought they looked pretty good, even for you.”

Raven is about to send back another dry response until an older staff member approaches the girls. She stands beside Raven and exchanges glances between her employee and valued customer.

“Is everything okay over here?” She calmly asked, “Is there anything I can help you with?”

Summer suddenly feels a twinge of guilt work its way from her stomach up to her throat. Despite the woman’s mild tone, she sensed something more stern. And judging by the way Raven stiffened under her grip, this wasn’t the time to play around anymore. Granted she liked taking this opportunity to knock Raven off her high horse, but getting her fired was overstepping boundaries.

“I- I’m okay… Marina,” Summer spots the name tag, “This was my first night here and Raven was just recommending me some other dishes to try out in the future,” Summer lies, doing her best to casually smile and appear innocent.

“Oh?” The woman’s eyes widen with genuine surprise, “Well then, I’ll leave you guys to it.”

She gently pats Raven on the shoulder before releasing her grasp and heading back into the kitchen. The way the woman came forward to address the situation makes Summer wonder how many near-fights Raven has gotten during her time working here.

“What the hell was that for?” Raven glares back at Summer.

“While it is beyond my personal code of conduct to get you fired on the job,” Summer stretches and stands up from her seat, “I think it’s still too early for something like that to happen.”

She throws a couple of lien down onto the table before heading out.

“See you at school.”

* * *

Summer could almost say she regretted blackmailing Raven, because for almost the entirety of next week, Raven’s been switching between a hostile temperament and being purposely negligent.

Summer wasn’t about to let her picture-perfect school persona be manipulated by Raven’s childish antics, but it was nonetheless difficult to put up with.

For Professor Aurelia’s in-class math quiz, Raven “borrows” Summer’s only graphing calculator without a warning, leaving the huntress to resort to finger counting, doodles, and mental math. Summer was still confident she did fine, but having the graphing calculator would have lessened the struggle.

For Professor Apricot’s field trip assignment in collecting red sap from the Forever Fall forest, right before teams would split up, Raven disappeared for the majority of the time and had the audacity to return once time was up and Summer had already collected the extra jar on her behalf.

Then, for training in the amphitheater, Raven always chose Summer as her adversary. Summer could sense irritation in Raven, as her movements were more frantic and erratic when she fought, as opposed to her usual calm and collected frame of mind. The only reason it wasn’t as noticeable for many was because she often relied on her strength to win, so this was just seen as a typical “Raven” characteristic. Thankfully, Summer saves herself from more potential humiliation by winning at least 1 out of the 3 matches so far.

Raven is definitely trying to mask her frustration, Summer thinks. But she doesn’t bother to ease the agitated huntress either. Whenever they needed to talk, she would not mention anything regarding the pictures she took. Summer had intended to go back to the noodle shop right after school everyday as payback, but even that seemed too desperate and required too much energy to do midweek. So she holds her head high each day and heads back to the dorms instead.

The moment she opens the door, she finds Qrow and Tai chilling on one of the top bunk beds, busy making paper airplanes and tossing them across the room.

“What are you guys doing?” Summer looks at the mess on the floor and mattresses.

“Hey, Summer!” Tai waves, “Nothing much. We’re just taking a break.”

He throws one airplane from the top and it glides straight toward Summer. She easily catches it with one hand and unfolds the sheet.

“This are vocabulary sheets for grimm studies,” Summer flails the paper towards the boys, “You sure you should be crumpling these? They’re pretty helpful for the midterm coming up soon.”

“Don’t worry about it, Short-stack,” Qrow throws another airplane across the room, which soars gracefully before hitting the wall, “We can always reprint more from the library if we run out.”

“You guys weren’t even studying, were you?” Summer frowns in disapproval.

“What, of course we were-“ Tai stammers.

“Ha! Nope,” Qrow interrupts, only to get a punch in the arm from Tai.

“Did you guys at least study yesterday night?”

“Yeah, that I can guarantee we did,” says Tai, folding another sheet, “Looking back, we could’ve done a lot better on Kuroyama’s pop-quiz if we had taken better notes beforehand.”

“We? Hey, don’t lump me in with your failure,” says Qrow, “I told you to pick another partner and you still insisted we pair up.”

“What?!” Tai cries out, “You said ‘I got this’ and I trusted you with most of the answers! And look what happened!”

Qrow merely shrugs, “Well, that’s what you get for listening to me.”

Tai crumbles the sheet of paper in his hands and hurls it at Qrow, to which the latter dodges. Then, a barrage of papers and curses fill the room. Summer only sighs and heads for her desk. She places her books onto the table before turning back the boys.

“Where the hell is Raven?” she asks, “We’re all supposed to be going over physics tonight.”

“Not sure,” Qrow muffles through Tai’s arms, “She didn’t answer my texts, so I honestly have no clue where else she could be.”

Tai tightens his grip on Qrow and they break out into another play-fight to which Summer disregards as another trivial shenanigan of theirs.

She decides to take a nap on the bottom bunk on the opposite end of the room to give the guys some space to have fun for a bit. She’s gotten so used to the ruckus they make so often that falling asleep in the middle of their shenanigans was no longer troublesome. In fact, she found it nice to have a new set of voices to lull her into a pleasant slumber in place of absolute silence. Staring out the window before lying down, she sees a large black bird perched on a branch that makes eye contact with her. They gaze at each other, silver eyes on crimson eyes, for a long minute before the avian ruffles its feathers, squawks, and flies away.

* * *

Once Friday comes around, Summer decides she’s left Raven to her own devices for long enough. She’s gotten less paranoid and appears more relaxed in class, so it’s time to pay her another visit. She originally planned to drag Qrow or Tai with her, but she takes a chance and decides to go in alone again.

The tiny bell above the entrance rings, and a new waitress greets the huntress.

“Welcome, table for how many?”

“Just one.”

The girl nods and leads Summer to a secluded corner that had a nice view of the road and pedestrians straight ahead, so it wasn’t all bad. The restaurant was a lot more emptier than last week, most likely because of midterm season, but it was still bustling with some life at certain sections. She places a menu down on the table and tells Summer, “I’ll give you a moment to decide what you want to eat. Just wave me over whenever you’re ready.”

“Sure, thanks.” Summer smiles.

In truth, she already knew what she wanted. Between her study periods, she had made a small list of the noodles Qrow had already tried, so now it was basically just a ‘pick and choose.’ But Summer skims the menu anyway to view the pictures and appease her appetite.

“You don’t know when to quit, do you?”

Summer is once again greeted with crimson eyes and a scowl instead of the icy blue she was waiting for.

“Why should I?” Summer puffs her cheeks, “The food here is good.”

“Riiight,” Raven rolls her eyes.

Summer glances behind Raven and sees the waitress that originally seated her. Taking the implication that Summer is being taken care of, she shoots back a soft smile.

“Vernal’s not a regular,” Raven states, reading the look on Summer’s face, “She’s only here for Fridays and the weekends.”

“Well, she’s certainly a breath of fresh air compared to you,” says Summer.

Raven doesn’t comment with any quips of her own like she normally would, so in the end she simply asks, “What do you want?”

“To strike a pose for the camera?” Summer holds her scroll up with a grin.

“ _To eat_ , goddammit., Raven grits out.

“I’ll have the vermicelli noodles with egg rolls and grilled pork,” says Summer, handing the menu back to Raven with a smirk, “And a fresh cup of coconut juice. Please be sure the egg rolls are cut into smaller pieces and my pork is well-done. It better not be pitch-black charred or I will fight you. Oh, and would it be possible to ask for a nice bendy-straw to go with my coconut juice? I refuse to accept any other alternative.”

Raven jots down Summer’s order on the notepad with extreme force before grabbing the menu and making off into the kitchen. 

“Bitch…” she mutters under her breath. But she immediately bites her lip when she senses a flash of light and a clicking noise behind her.

There’s a moment of loud chatter from the cookery when Raven enters that carries across the building, but it quickly subsides within minutes. Between the waiting and watching Raven work, it was both amusing and a huge eyesore. She was prompt with customers and making sure they got the food hot and ready - as she eventually did with Summer - but the way she addressed them was downright awful.

“How’s it going over here?”

Summer’s train of thought is disrupted as she slurps in a mouthful of noodles before finding Vernal clearing a nearby table.

“Oh, I’m doing okay.” Summer responds.

“How do you like the noodles?”

“The vermicelli is different than the rice noodles I ordered last time,” Summer pulls up a chunk of noodles with her chopsticks, “This one’s thinner and is more lighter on the stomach even when it has lots of meat on the side.”

“Sharp-eye,” Vernal laughs, “Might I suggest giving Egg noodles a try? I can’t give a specific number on the menu since I love them all, but that kind is the one I like to bounce around a lot when I come here as a customer.”

Summer’s eyes light up with excitement as she pulls out her scroll and notes down the information, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

She gets so caught up imagining her next visit and the vivid image of the noodles she almost misses Vernal’s comment.

“You’re eyes are beautiful, by the way.”

“Hmm?” Summer is caught off guard.

“You’re eyes. They’re silver.”

“Uh, yeah,” Summer blushes, “It’s just a common trait in my family. Our eyes are all the same color and every generation inherits it.”

“Raven talks about them a lot and says they’re a rarity, but I never thought I’d actually get to see it for myself.”

Summer is about to thank her, but the mention of Raven’s name makes her halt.

“Wait,” Summer drawls, “Raven… talks about me?”

“Well, to be frank, she’s called you ‘an annoying, naive little shit’ in between discussions,” Vernal frowns, “But I think that’s a bit of an overstatement?”

“A little too exaggerated,” Summer pouts, “But she’s not completely wrong…”

“I take it Raven isn’t being that great a teammate, is she?”

“What makes you say that?” a curious Summer asks.

“From her bold description of you, for one,” Vernal notes, wiping down another table as she spoke, “And her poor customer service skills, if you haven’t noticed… I’m sure as her team leader you get the same feeling as I do that she only talks to people because she has to than because she wants to.”

“No…” Summer sighs, “You’re pretty much right on the dot.”

“She’s rough around the edges with her people skills,” Vernal sighs, “But I do think her work ethic is worth praising. She’s taken multiple shifts and has covered her coworkers more than anyone else on the job. And she’s not afraid to challenge the few difficult customers that come in every now and then either, even when she gets lectured by Marina at the end of it all…"

“Oh?” Summer raises her eyebrows.

But before she could inquire more, a voice from the back calls out to Vernal. 

“Okay, I’m on it!” She yells back.

Vernal shuffles to organize the cleaning cart and dirty dishes before heading towards the kitchen.

“It was nice talking to you,” she smiles, “See you around.”

“Yeah,” Summer waves, “Same to you.”

When Vernal leaves, Summer takes a moment of solitude to think while slurping in the last few portions of her noodles. It was strange to hear that Vernal had several positive things to say about Raven. The only thing Summer can say for sure is that Raven revels in combat. At least they both agreed that Raven’s overall disposition could use some work. She practically “throws” the bowls and cups onto the table for customers to the point where it looked like it was going to spill and her tone of voice was always dismissive and cold. At the rate she was going, Summer probably didn’t even have to do much to get Raven fired. If she were to ever go down that route.

“You done staring into space?”

Summer looks up to Raven hovering over her with rage in her eyes.

“No,” says Summer, “But I am done with my drink. I’d like another.”

“What?” a grouchy Raven replies.

“You heard me,” Summer pushes her cup towards the waitress, “I want another order of coconut juice.”

“Fine,” Raven says as she snatches the cup from Summer.

When she returns five minutes later and bluntly throws the cup onto the table, Summer catches it as it slid across the table and says, “Your customer service skills are fucking atrocious, you know that?”

“Why do you care?” asks Raven, “You’re not the one working.”

“No, but I am the client, am I not?” Summer responds, sipping the liquid from the straw, “Keep up with that dreadful attitude of yours and sooner or later, complaints will pile up and you’ll get fired even without me even doing anything.”

“I don’t give a shit what the customers think,” says Raven, “They’re lucky I haven’t sabotaged their soup with poison yet.”

“Another big ‘yikes’ right there,” Summer points out, “If you haven’t noticed, a good portion of your earnings do come from the people you apparently don’t give a shit about.”

Raven doesn’t respond to that remark, but within that silence an idea pops into Summer’s head. “Tell you what, why don’t you hang out with the team this weekend? Help you get your mind off work for a while.”

“No thanks,” Raven flatly replies.

“If you have time to be a bitch to the customers, then you can make time for your teammates,” Summer counters.

“Or,” she takes out her scroll, “if you don’t care about your job, I’ll be a brat and file a complaint to Marina? And share these wonderful pictures of you to every student on campus? Oh, the strong and ambitious Raven got fired for picking a fight at her minimum wage job. How embarrassing!”

Summer was bluffing; mostly. But it at least got a nervous reaction from Raven. “What are we even going to do?”

“A small study session.”

“I’d rather study on my own,” Raven dryly replies.

“Yeah, I’m sure that’s been working out great,” Summer snorts, “Your last midterm score for Professor Aurelia’s math test really shows.”

“Anyone ever tell you how nosy you are?” Raven glares daggers at Summer.

“The papers were spread across her desk for people to grab and yours was right on top. Get over it,” Summer glowers back, “Because I sure as hell am not gonna sit back and deal with a partner who constantly abandons her teammates. If that’s what you want, then drop out of Beacon right now while you’re at it and save us the trouble.”

The declaration has Raven raising her eyebrows in surprise, and the act causes the determined huntress’ face to dust pink and revert back to a bit of cowering.

“A-anyway, we’re meeting at the cafe right down the block from school at 11 a.m. See you then, I guess.”

Summer swiftly packs her belongings and chugs down the rest of the coconut juice before hightailing it for the exit.

" _This should be interesting_..." she thinks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The setting was originally meant to be some sort of cafe or coffee shop, but I don't have enough decent knowledge of how they work so I went with a Noodle Shop instead.~
> 
> Tumblr: [HaruHara16](http://haruhara16.tumblr.com)  
> 


	2. Chapter 2

“I can’t believe I got a higher score than you!” Qrow hollers.

“Keep it down!” Summer hisses, “It’s still too early to be this rowdy.”

“C’mon, Short-stack, you can’t tell me you’re not as shocked as I am to know that I didn’t do jack shit for this test and still got a better grade than Tai.”

“I mean, yeah I am, but just lower your voices please!”

Qrow pats Tai mockingly on the back as the blonde boy hangs his head in shame with one hand on his forehead. Summer delivers a pained expression to the employees, who wave off their antics nonchalantly. She was glad the staff didn’t mind the early-morning company on a weekend, but she still wanted to be considerate of their volume in a confined space.

“This is bullshit!” Tai grits his teeth looking at the 62 written in red ink on the top-right corner of the paper, “I pulled an all-nighter for this test.”

“Trigonometry is a bit confusing and needs lots of memorization when it comes to the unit circle. What happened?” Summer asks.

Before Tai could hand over his exam to Summer, Qrow snags it from his hands and compares it to his own.

“Idiot,” Qrow skims through their answers, “You messed up all the trig functions and those were worth the most points on the exam.”

Tai doesn’t respond, he simply lays his head on the table.

Qrow passes the paper over to Summer, who quickly scans the sheet. “He’s right. Didn’t I tell you to apply the acronym SOH-CAH-TOA?”

Tai looks up at her, frowning, “What the hell is that?”

“Yeah, that explains a lot,” Qrow snorts. 

Tai grabs his teammate with one hand on his shirt collar, murmuring curses into his face while Qrow holds his hands up in fake surrender.

“SHUSH!” Summer whispers loudly, peeking at the employees at the front, “This isn’t the dorm room!”

Tai is lightly shaking Qrow back and forth before he suddenly stops. His face becomes more relaxed as he releases Qrow and casually straightens out his shirt. “Yeah, yeah…”

He turns to the huntress, but not before giving Qrow the most shit-eating grin ever, “By the way, Summer, did you know Qrow’s been seeing someone?”

Qrow almost spits out his bottled water. “What the-“

“The Vytal Festival’s coming up, so I figure you guys would be getting to know more students from the other academies,” Summer says without looking up, “I haven’t exactly had the chance yet.”

“That’s too bad,” Tai continues effortlessly, “Because I think our birdy here’s been getting reaaallly cozy with a special operative from Atlas.”

“I swear to god, Tai-” Qrow interjects, but it doesn’t faze Tai one bit.

“Oh,” Summer says, still writing in her notebook. But then, she stops to finally process what Tai is saying. She peeks at the boys sitting across from her. Tai is smirking and wheezing between his hands, while Qrow is stiff and growing redder by the second. At that moment, the bell goes off in her head.

“ _OH_ ,” Summer’s eyes are glistening with excitement now and Qrow rubs his face, groaning.

“Look, it’s not what you think-“ Qrow starts, only to be drowned out by the curious nagging of his teammates.

“What’s his name?” Tai leans in, “Is this why you’ve been doing relatively better in school lately? Getting together for your own special study sessions, hmm?”

“Shut the fuck up!” Qrow pushes Tai’s face away, but he refuses to budge and tries to push back in.

Summer giggled, “I didn’t take you for the Atlas type, Mr. Edgy. Who are you and what have you done with Qrow-fuck-the-military-Branwen?”

Tai and Summer could barely contain their laughter and Qrow hides his face in embarrassment. 

“C’mon, give us something here,” Tai pesters, “I’ve caught your sparring matches during self-directed training in the amphitheater; it reeks of major sexual tension.”

“Why wasn’t I told of this?” Summer whines.

“You should’ve seen their fight last Thursday, Summer!” Tai adds, "Qrow pinned the guy down with Harbinger and they stared longingly into each other’s eyes for a good long minute until I interrupted their dandy love connection.”

“Whatever,” Qrow grumbles, trying to keep his composure, “You know he’s just being nice. I’m sure Mr. Boy Scout has better taste.”

“Shut up, you dumbass,” Tai wraps an arm around Qrow’s shoulder, “Don’t pretend like Mr. Boy Scout hasn’t been a good influence on you when I can see that shit as clear as day.”

“Who’s been a good influence on Qrow now?” a voice interrupted.

Summer turns around and sees Raven, who shows up wearing a red long-sleeved chiffon top, followed by black slacks and gray flats. Her hair was the only thing left falling in a messy manner. It was a simple choice of wear that wasn’t too extravagant, but still held some flair that catches the eye.

It was… a good look on her. 

Perhaps a little too good that Summer was briefly mesmerized by this new appearance to the point where she got startled by Qrow’s retort.

“No one!” Qrow practically yells.

“You’re half an hour late, Raven. It’s about time you showed up,” says Tai.

“I’ll have you know I decided to give a shit about my looks today,” Raven huffs.

No kidding, Summer thinks.

“Anyway,” she turns to Qrow, “I hear someone’s gotten under your skin?”

“No!” he seethed.

“Ohhh yes, someone has,” Tai smiles, “They’ve been-“

Qrow finally finds the courage to shove Tai off of him and walk towards the front register. “I’m gonna order us something to drink,” he says, refusing to look his friends in the eye.

“I’ll come with you!” Tai jumps from his seat and trails next to Qrow. There is some inaudible chatter between them as they stroll up to the menu board. The gruff huntsman is burning red in the face and Tai is shamelessly laughing. But he doesn’t make another effort to push the blondie away when he pulls him into another side-hug.

This leaves the girls to sit at the table alone, where the silence grows a bit agonizing. Summer basically forced Raven to show up, and while she was glad the whole gang was here, it wasn’t exactly on good terms for one person.

“You- You look nice today,” Summer squeaks.

Raven scowls, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“No, really,” Summer brushes her fingers between her hair, “I think your outfit looks neat. I just… don’t see you doll yourself up that often, that’s all.”

“These were my mom’s old clothes when she was my age. It’s been hanging in my closet for years and I just felt bad letting it sit there for so long,” Raven shrugs, pulling out some homework papers from her bookbag.

“Or you could just take the damn compliment,” Summer says flatly. 

“No need to bother wasting your breath on cheesy comments,” Raven scoffs.

“People say stuff like that because it’s simply a polite gesture towards things that catch their eye,” Summer replies, watching Tai and Qrow from the corner of her eye making conversation with the waitress at the front register.

“That sounds stupid as hell,” Raven says curtly.

A flash of light blinds the girl momentarily and she has to put up her hands to protect her eyes. When she lowers her arms, she sees Summer holding up her scroll with a defiant look on her face.

“I’m gonna keep adding more pictures to my gallery if you keep being an asshole,” Summer warns, earning a glare in return, “And it’s not stupid as hell. It’s called being friendly, something you clearly have no understanding of. And here I thought your job would’ve helped incorporate some interactive techniques.”

Raven shrugs, “I’m not gonna waste my time complimenting strangers that I probably won’t ever see again.”

“If you want some extra moola in your pocket, then you’re going to have to swallow your pride and smile. You always look like you’re on the verge of killing someone.”

“Maybe I am.”

“I’d be happy to escort you to the police station first thing,” Summer rolls her eyes, “You have to learn to suppress that urge.”

“…So you want me to play pretend?” Raven clarifies, giving Summer an unimpressed look.

“The same way we’re both pretending this little game of back-and-forth isn’t getting ridiculous,” Summer stares back and receives a scowl in return.

“Then delete those pictures,” Raven glares at the silver-eyed huntress.

“No,” Summer firmly says, “I said I’ll delete them when I feel like it.”

Summer rests her cheek on her palm, shaking her scroll in her other hand, “Doesn’t feel good to be on the receiving end, does it?”

Raven makes a “tch” sound but lowers her head slightly. She crosses her arms and no longer meets eyes with Summer.

“Do you have any idea how much it pisses me off that you keep bailing on us?” Summer softens her voice, “On me?”

Raven doesn’t answer, so Summer continues.

“I don’t know if you even give your team thought, but leaving us in the dark without so much as a message from you is frankly cruel and inconsiderate,” she huffs, “Maybe you don’t give a damn about us or these classes. But I’m not gonna let everyone else suffer because your wanderlust and affinity for violence in the field outweighs your concern for letter grades.”

Raven’s expression reaches dangerously close to a pout, but she keeps quiet.

“All I’m asking is for you to meet me halfway,” Summer’s voice lowers into a whisper,“We’re supposed to be a team. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing…”

Still no response from Raven.

So much for trying to bond, Summer thinks. 

She felt like she crossed the line a bit telling Raven how she should act. She was supposed to be a leader, not lecture her like a parent would to their child. But as a leader, she needed to take a stand and prove she was fit to be one. So going beyond the basic formalities of interaction was essential. All she wanted to do was help. Maybe Raven doesn’t care to think of her as a friend despite the fact that they ended up being in the same team let alone become partners, but extending a hand never hurt. Besides, Summer’s patience for Raven’s patronizing attitude was starting to grow thin.

Raven sighs, reluctantly breaking the silence and startling Summer from her train of thought, “If my grades improve on these next round of midterms, we’ll see what happens.”

Summer tears out a fresh sheet of paper from her notebook, “Let’s get to it then.”

. . . . .

“Why are there so many fuckin’ formulas?” Qrow complains as he finishes a math problem.

“And I thought reciprocal functions were hard,” Tai mutters in agreement.

“Wait until we get to the graphing,” Summer sighs, taking a bite out of a croissant, “Understanding patterns in the unit circle are gonna be important.”

“The what?!” The boys cry out simultaneously.

Qrow throws his pencil down, “What kind of loser has so much time on his hands to create math in the first place?”

“I’ve finally formed a strong, emotional bond with this subject and it’s called hatred,” Raven says bluntly.

Tai erases his writing vigorously, adding more shavings onto his notebook. “Someone tell me again why huntsman and huntresses need to study math?” 

“It’s part of the curriculum,” Summer answers straightforwardly.

“Right, yeah, because it’s gonna be sooo useful in the field,” Qrow drawls, twirling his pencil between his fingers, “What am I gonna do, scare a Sabyr with the Pythagorean Theorem?”

“I don’t see why that wouldn’t work out considering three out of four of us are close to failing,” Tai snorts.

“Hey, I passed with 75 points on this one,” Qrow holds up his test, “I think I can still save my grade.”

“And you think that’s gonna balance out the 47 you got on the first test?” Raven sticks out her tongue, “I don’t think your handsome lucky charm is gonna save you from this.”

Qrow’s face starts to burn and he shoves the test packet into Raven’s face, “Shut up.”

The table erupts into moderate laughter.

“Speaking of which…” Summer turns to Raven, who frowns back at her with uncertainty.

“Vernal says you talk about my silver eyes a lot,” says Summer, raises her eyebrows, “Is that true?”

Tai’s eyes widen and wipes the sandwich crumbs off his lips before joining in, “Oh yes, Raven. Why don’t we talk about that instead? And who the heck is Vernal?”

“Oof. Finally something more interesting than trigonometry,” Qrow scribbles across his paper, “Be honest, sis, you did spend a good week or two rambling about how intriguing they were when you two first became partners.”

“I just said they were interesting,” Raven mumbles, “What’s there to talk about?”

“I don’t know,” Qrow taps his chin mockingly, “Maybe about how it reminds you of our old bedtime stories Mom used to read to us? Or how often you liked to roughhouse with Dad and pretend to be the legendary warriors in the books? Or how-“

A crumpled sheet of paper ricochets off Qrow forehead and lands right in his empty cup of hot chocolate. Summer giggles and Tai raises his arms like a referee.

“I think ‘legendary’ is still a bit of a reach in my case,” Summer blushes, “But I’m flattered you guys think they’re appealing.”

“Oh yeah, I’m sure someone would go blind from such beauty,” Qrow flashes his eyebrows at Raven and feigns a heart attack.

“Look, can we just finish this last section and go home?” Raven looks back at her notebook.

“Hold on,” says Tai, scratching across his sheet, “Who says we’re going home so soon?”

“I say so,” Raven narrows her eyes.

“Well, I say that since we’re all here, let’s go to the arcade,” Tai smiles.

“So I can beat your ass at DDR again in front of more people?” Qrow elbows the blondie, “This should be fun. You in or out, sis?”

“Hmph. I don’t-“

“C’mooon, don’t be such a buzzkill, Raven,” Tai persuades, “You avoid us like the plague in school already. Humor us for a bit.”

Raven’s grumbles softly, but her eyes look up and ends meeting Summer’s. Her expression is almost sad, as if she could already predict Raven’s imminent answer.

“All I’m asking is for you to meet me halfway…” the sentence echoes in her head.

Raven stews over the past hours of studying with her team. She was so used to being cooped up at her desk alone that she had no trouble picking out the benefits of this new transition. She realizes she’s retained a lot more information through their open discussions than she did during her own self-study periods. Sure they got distracted and went off-topic every now and then, but it felt nice that she could freely drift between seriousness and utter nonsense with them. Sometimes she felt the words that escaped her mouth were a bit extreme, but everyone seemed to find it amusing so that was a good sign. The joy of poking fun and jokes made at each other’s expenses in the cafe makes her think about how insensitive she was all those times when she wouldn’t respond to their text messages or flat-out ditched them. One day wasn’t going to fully make up for her inconsiderate etiquette, but it was a start.

Raven sighs and stands up first. She straightens her bookbag over her shoulders and says, “I guess I got some more hours to kill…”

At the corner of her eye, she sees Summer beaming with delight, followed by her brother and Tai.

Summer jumps from her seat from excitement, “Let’s go!”

. . . . . . . . . .

Summer takes a deep inhale and exhales loudly. It was starting to get a little uncomfortable sitting in the cafe, as the smell of coffee and baked goods started getting murky between her nostrils. A breath of fresh air is just what she needed, but the fact it was faintly perfumed by the stores she and her team strolled by made it much more difficult to ignore.

Tai and Qrow are walking ahead, leaving her and Raven trailing behind. Summer wonders if Raven feels guilty about the way she acted before, seeing as to how she’s dropped a lot of negative commentary and choosing to remain more or less quiet around her now. Summer knew her persistence was always a nuisance in some form, but this time it actually broke through Raven’s stubbornness. It resulted in a lot of immature behavior between them for some time, but the tension that used to linger in the air between the girls finally softened and Summer felt rather relieved that they’ve reached some sort of middle ground. But their relationship still needed time to improve.

The stroll that should’ve taken 30 minutes tops ends up dragging out to three hours and more, as they would all venture into the nearby stores within the block, purchasing more snacks or items that they obviously didn’t need or sit at an outdoor table to chat about random topics that came to mind.

“Hey, did you guys remember to turn in the homework for grimm studies yesterday?” Qrow asks, the rock candy in his mouth popping as he spoke.

“Yeah, we had to submit our sketches online since he cancelled class that day,” Raven says between the crunch of potato chips, “Why? Did you forget?”

“No, I was wondering if you guys wanted to share your pictures,” Qrow unlocks his scroll, “And maybe see if he posted the grades for it yet.”

“No way,” Tai immediately says.

Sensing Tai’s nervousness, Raven quickly sides with her brother, “You know what, yeah. Lemme check and see.”

“Yeah, c’mon, Tai,” Summer pulls out her scroll.

“But why, though?” Tai mumbles.

“Do it or I’ll hack into your account myself,” Qrow threatens, “Peter and I have been on relatively good terms lately after my skirt gig as a runway model, so-“

“Okay, okay, damn, alright!”

“And put that shit on full-screen and full brightness too.”

“On the count of three, we all show?” Summer asks.

“Yes,” the twin siblings say in unison. Tai groans, but nods reluctantly.

Summer counts down, “1…2…3… Go!”

Everyone expands the picture on their scroll and Raven immediately snickers at the one in front of her.

“Qrow, what the hell is that?”

Tai squints his eyes in disbelief when he sees Qrow’s drawing, “It looks like a dog with wings.”

“It’s a Teryx, you dumbass!”

“I thought it looked like a four-legged Nevermore,” Raven comments.

“I’m enrolled at a huntsman academy, not an art school,” says Qrow.

“How the hell did you get an 8 out of 10 for that?” Tai points at his own drawing, “My Ursa looks better than your chicken scratch and he gave me a 7 out of 10!”

“I think you forgot to label the body parts,” Summer frowns, holding her scroll close to Tai’s, “Check the comments section.”

“…Ahh shit, you’re right,” Tai bemoans.

“What a nit-picky dude,” Raven shakes her head.

“This was the easiest assignment ever for his class and you still scored low?” Qrow claps his hands sarcastically, “Man, you are on a roll!”

Tai shoves Qrow with mild force then rubs his face with his hands.

“C’mon, Tai, I think you did fine,” Summer laughs.

“Your opinion doesn’t count,” Tai frowns, “What other talents are you hiding from us, Little Miss Perfect?”

Summer proudly shows off her detailed art piece depicting a Manticore; it was standing on its hind legs with its wings spread out.

“She even shaded it and added lighting effects?!” Tai cries, “NERD.”

“Kuroyama said he was grading on us on effort,” says Raven, “I don’t think it’s anything to get too worked up about.”

“He said the same shit for that six-page essay on the Wyvern we turned in two weeks ago and he still docked off points on mine because I forgot to mention it’s grimm-spawning abilities.”

“Then you obviously didn’t put in enough effort,” Qrow bluntly says, to which Tai responds with a rough chokehold.

“What did you draw, Raven?” Summer turns to face her.

“A megoliath,” Raven places her scroll down on the table.

“Why does yours look different than the ones shown in the textbook?” Summer inching closer to stare at the drawing.

“It’s an Alpha Megoliath,” says Raven. She points out the different aspects of her art piece, “If you pull up the textbook PDF, you can see these guys are much more armored than their regular counterparts, especially around their mask and tusks. They’re more intelligent, faster, and resilient. They’re strong and tough to take down. Not to mention how cool they look.”

“Ahh, I’m starting to see a resemblance,” Summer snickers.

“Hey, I’m not the one who went overboard with poses and shading just for a 10-point assignment,” says Raven.

“But it was fun!” Summer whines, “Kuroyama assigns more essays than a typical English class! So this was free pointers!”

“Always an overachiever, team leader,” Raven snorts, lightly kicking Summer in the shin under the table.

“So you’re finally admitting that I’m better than you,” Summer reaches down to rub the part of her leg where Raven kicked.

“No, I’m not,” Raven frowns, waving her hand dismissively, “When did I ever say that?”

“But that statement implies so,” Summer rests her chin on her palm, smirking playfully, only to earn a scoff from Raven.

It’s actually sort of fun to banter back and forth with Raven, as the two of them continued to converse about other school topics while the boys got into mischief of their own. They were so caught up in their idle chitchat to the point where they completely forgot they were supposed to go to the arcade in the first place. While it’s been fun to bother Raven, this form of teasing seems different somehow; much nicer and lighthearted. She even manages to send out a few sarcastic one-liners that makes Raven laugh and add more fuel to the flames. Her smiles lasted longer and didn’t feel condescending like before.

When they get back to the dorms, Summer lays on the bunk above Tai’s bed, her eyes constantly drifting towards Raven at the bottom bunk on the opposite end of the room. She was laid sprawled out on the mattress with her frizzy hair strands falling over the pillow. The hush of the night allows Summer to zone in on different rhythmic breathing filling the air.

Normally, Summer would have used the word ‘endure’ to describe the predicament of sitting around Raven’s insufferable, self-centered personality and the take great satisfaction in pushing her buttons. But she actually had genuine fun today with her; with the entire team. It was a nice turn of events, and Summer can’t help but feel disappointed that it didn’t last longer.

* * *

The school days have apparently begun to feel oddly cheerful. 

Summer is unsure, but she thinks she’s notices Raven opening up to other classmates and their professors. She’s been steadily closing the distance between herself and other people in the classroom; inching her way from the lonely corners and more towards the center where the majority of Team STRQ would sit. Raven has also started showing her face more often at lunch and group study sessions, whom Summer continues to welcome with open arms. She doesn’t say much aside from several witty replies to the team’s open discussions, but Summer was glad to have the remaining member of her team be more available.

After suffering a few more weeks of exams, Summer finds herself at the noodle shop again on another Friday evening.

The noodle shop is notably busier than before, so it take about 10 minutes before Summer is seated.

Her eyes search for Raven, but with both employees and customers moving up and about, it makes it difficult to spot her target. Eventually, they find her bustling about at the far end of the restaurant, taking orders from a table occupied by a large family. Summer is somewhat disappointed that Raven isn’t the one to service her like before, but that aspect is completely understandable with clients flooding in and out every half-hour.

Luckily, Summer is greeted with another familiar face and takes her up on her suggestion of trying egg noodles. Observing Raven between chewing her food feels much easier now that Raven seems to have loosened up. There’s still a bit of gruff in her tone and a sense of restlessness when answering the customer’s questions, but she manages a couple of smiles at the end that leave a considerably good impression on her clients.

Summer isn’t the only one who’s taken notice of Raven’s change in attitude. Some of Raven’s coworkers whisper to each other with surprise in their eyes. Marina, who Summer remembers seeing on her first night at the noodle shop, squeezes Raven’s shoulder with a delightful look on her face. Even Vernal joins in and gives Raven a light punch to the arm, to which the latter only pouts with mild annoyance.

By then, the night arrives and Summer has loitered in the restaurant until near-closing time.

Summer stretches her arms and she feels something crack from behind. She gently pushes aside the soup bowl and rubs the base of her neck with one hand before bending down to grab her bookbag. But before she leaves, a voice asks, “Table for one again?”

Summer blinks at Raven, who is waiting for some sort of answer.

“Uh, yeah,” she finally says, “Pretty comfortable with the place now so it’s not that big a deal anymore.”

“Where are the guys?” Raven inquires.

“Passed out from exhaustion,” Summer sighs, “They skipped dinner, but it’s been a rough two weeks so I’m leaving them be. Why, were you expecting more visitors?”

Summer smirks at her last question, which earns an eye roll from Raven.

“Qrow’s lightened up on the visiting because his attention has been diverted by a local fisherman, but I figured you or he would’ve at least gotten Tai in on the secret by now. Just my presumption,” Raven shrugs.

That notion surprises Summer herself, considering it would be something she would have done not too long ago, but she dismisses the reasoning.

“Nah,” Summer denies with a smile, “Playing the long game has been pretty effective. So I think I’ll keep you to myself for the time being.”

Summer swears she could see Raven’s cheeks blush for a split second, but it quickly fades away. The waitress sighs, looking around at the nearly-empty restaurant before taking a seat on the opposite end of the table.

“How did you do on the tests?”

Summer’s expression borders that of bewilderment. Raven has never engaged in a separate conversation with her outside of a group setting, so it was a little shocking to see this happen. Still, the optimistic huntress goes along with it.

“I got a 91 in grimm studies. I missed a few multiple choice but got all the free response questions right. What about you?”

“How the hell do you always get a perfect score in the free-response?” Raven narrows her eyes, “I got 78 because he deducted the majority of my points from that section. Every little detail missed costed me at least five points.”

“Kuroyama is a little too strict,” Summer agrees, “A part of me thinks he would’ve been better off as a huntsman in the field than a professor in a classroom.”

“His knowledge on grimm would’ve been put to better use out there than into condensed paragraphs,” Raven wrinkles her nose, “What about Apricot’s pop-quiz?”

“Easy five points,” Summer raises her head proudly, “I’m guessing you missed that last question on the nutrient cycling process?”

“Yeah,” Raven rubs the bridge of her nose, “I misplaced some of the metabolism steps. But I’m thankful she only took off a point and wasn’t too picky about my terrible drawing.”

“You say that but you drew the megoliath with a lot more effort,” Summer giggles.

“Hey, the only reason I like Apricot’s class is because it’s more field-based than constantly sitting in a lecture hall. Just wish I could say the same for the material we’re supposed to learn,” Raven huffs.

“But I think she’s a great professor overall,” says Summer, “She tries to make the content as easy and simple as possible. She’s a lot less demanding than she was years back. At least, that’s what the fourth-year students say.”

“I’ll be the judge of that when the final comes around,” Raven snorts.

“If anything, I think I can ask them for her past exams. They say she reuses a lot of the questions,” Summer contemplates.

“Cheating, aren’t we?” Raven raises her eyebrows, “Is that how you’re getting all these high scores?”

“It’s not cheating!” Summer feels her face burn, “I’m giving us a successful advantage! There’s no specific policy against studying off old tests.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” says Raven, trying to keep a straight face.

“How’d you do on Aurelia’s math test on Tuesday?” Summer leans in, “You focused more on studying for that class than everything else.”

“You tell me first?” Raven asks.

“I got a 93,” says Summer.

Raven is stunned at Summer’s response, but she momentarily breaks eye contact before mumbling, “96…”

Summer is practically beaming, “See?! I told you these study sessions have been working out great! I think Aurelia is gonna let us use a cheat sheet for the final, so we all have to get together and organize our notes by then. I’ll even show you guys how to fold the paper so you have more room to write-“

Suddenly, in the middle of Summer’s rambling, Raven stands up and heads to the kitchen. Summer panics at the abrupt act, thinking she got a little too enthusiastic and she scared her away with her excitable energy. Summer hangs her head and almost feels guilty until a large strawberry milkshake with a bendy straw is gently placed in front of her.

“Here,” Raven announces, “This one’s on me.”

Summer stares at the drink awkwardly for a moment before she finally blurts out, “I’m- I’m still a little full from the noodles? I ordered a large bowl…”

But when Raven frowns, Summer adds, “But I’m not complaining! I like milkshakes! Thanks.”

She grabs up the cup nervously and presses her lips against the straw, sipping the drink letting the sweet flavor engulf her taste buds. She doesn’t look at Raven directly, but she sees the waitress sit back down again in her peripheral and her shoulder muscles relax. 

“Consider this a huge thanks for helping me improve my grades,” says Raven, “Probably wouldn’t have done as well as I did without your relentless badgering.”

“Was that supposed to be a compliment?” Summer snickers as she swallows a mouthful of cold liquid.

Raven crosses her arms and avoids looking at Summer, “Something like that…"

It was kind of cute seeing the intimidating huntress act rather bashful after dealing with her aloof disposition for so long. It was nice that they’ve become comfortable with each other enough to sit together in silence or talk without having to worry about another altercation breaking out between them.

With a smile growing across her face, Summer takes out her scroll and shows Raven the pictures she took months earlier. “You remember these?”

“Thanks for the reminder,” Raven scowls, “You mocking me?”

“No,” Summer sighs, clicking the ‘delete all’ button, “I’m setting this bird free from her mental cage. Sorry for all the trouble. You know, blackmailing you and stuff.”

Raven is quiet for a moment, but then she covers a soft giggle with one hand.

“Shouldn’t I be the one apologizing?” Raven snorts, “You weren’t the one running off and disappearing to who-knows-where when the team needed to be together.”

With that thought in mind, an idea pops into Summer’s mind.

“Well then, in that case, as a thank you for this nice, cold drink and all your hard work, how about we go out on Sunday?”

“For another study session with the guys?” Raven asks, rubbing her face with both hands, “Can’t we take a break from all this schoolwork for a bit?”

“We are,” Summer corrects her, “But this isn’t going to be a study session; just an ordinary day out. Except it’ll be just you and me.”

Raven casts a squinting, suspicious gaze at Summer, “What kind of evil scheme are you plotting? Trying to find out what my weaknesses are so you can win during the training matches?”

“No!” Summer whines, “I’m just asking you to hang out with me and relax!”

Raven gives Summer a flat look in response and it gives her an unforeseen pain in her chest.

“I mean, if you don’t want to-“

“What time?” Raven asks.

Summer blinks at her, “What?”

“What time?” Raven repeats.

“How about… 11?” Summer asks.

“In the A.M?” Raven frowns, “Cut me some slack, Summer. It’s a Sunday, and we just suffered through a shitton of midterms. Make it 1 p.m?”

“Deal,” Summer laughs, “I’ll leave you to help your coworkers clean up then. They look like they could use some help. See you back at the dorm.”

She leaves a generous tip and waves goodbye to Raven, who returns the act with a similar gesture.

On her way back to Beacon grounds, Summer feels her heart fluttering a bit more out of control than normal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why do my Chapter 2's always feel like they're the longest??? HHHNNNN
> 
> This chapter was more or less an excuse for me to indulge in Team STRQ and giving them some more happy, team-bonding content that they deserve.
> 
> Also, did you guys catch those tiny FairGame hints? :D
> 
> *NOTE: This chapter might be edited to have the last section with Summer/Raven move to the beginning of Chapter 3, but I'm still undecided. Just giving you guys a heads-up so there won't be any surprises when a chunk of writing suddenly goes missing!


End file.
